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Charitable social enterprise and worker-owned co-op GLL have announced 2,830 athletes from across the UK will benefit from the 2025 intake of its GLL Sport Foundation (GSF) – the largest independent athlete award programme in the UK. Now in its 17th year the GLL Sport Foundation has so far contributed over £17m worth of athlete funding and support and distributed over 30,000 awards to young and talented athletes in 70 areas of the UK where GLL operate and across 117 different sports.  At a National Launch Event held in the London Borough of Newham on 25 April, athletes and partners gathered to hear how this year's athlete award fund of over £1.4m will help support talented athletes on their sporting journey.  GLL added Newham to its list of leisure partnerships in 2024, extending the opportunity of the GSF Awards to east London's sports stars of tomorrow.   The GSF supports athletes through financial bursaries, access to physical rehabilitation and mental wellbeing support and all athletes are also given access to over 250 sport and leisure facilities across the UK operated by GLL under its "BETTER" brand. Over 17 years, the GLL Sport Foundation (GSF) has continued to be at the forefront of developing local young athletic talent with the majority of athletes under the age of 21 and on average 88% of athletes receive no other funding or athlete support, which underlines the importance of the scheme to up and coming athletes.  GLL’s recent research shows that many talented athletes struggle to realise their dreams of sporting glory due to rising costs of equipment, training, physiotherapy, travel and nutrition. For them, a GSF Award can be the lifeline to staying in training and meeting their potential. Current GSF National Ambassadors include Joe Clarke, Kimberley Woods, Tulley Kearny, Louise Fiddes, Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson and amongst GSF Alumni are Tom Daley, Ellie Simmonds, Daryl Neita and Anthony Joshua. GSF Patron Sally Gunnell OBE said: “Now in its 17th year, the GLL Sport Foundation continues to make a difference, extending support for young athletes just at the time when they need it - keeping them in training and helping them realise their sporting dreams. "It's fantastic to see so many young sportsmen and women accessing the scheme this year and I wish them the very best of luck in their sporting careers." GSF Chair and GLL CEO Peter Bundey said: “GLL is a unique organisation that over 32 years has expanded its public service offer, bringing measurable benefit to local communities. “Our GLL Sport Foundation is a key part of our remit to widen and deepen our social impact by offering unique opportunities to talented young athletes and build a legacy through sport. “Thanks to the generosity of our sponsors and our own purposed business model we are delighted to announce a record 2,830 athletes will benefit from the programme this year. I want to wish them every success and we look forward to seeing them in competition here and abroad in years to come." GSF Legacy Ambassador and Athlete Representative on the GLL Sport Foundation Abdul Buhari said: “As an athlete that's had a career in sport, I know firsthand for the impact the GSF has in both a practical and financial sense. "The cost of training and preparation remains high, and I know many athletes will be able to succeed because these awards remove another barrier to competition. "The ability to do something you are passionate about with the help of GSF is priceless”.                                             The GSF Annual Report will be released shortly.  For more information visit www.gllsportfoundation.org The GLL Sport Foundation's Patron is Sally Gunnell, OBE and partners involved in the programme include; SportsAid, SportsAid Wales, Mary Peters Trust, sponsors from GLL's supply chain and local authority partners.

Toast, the beer brand that brews using surplus bread, is offering punters the chance toexperience the outdoors inside their local. The B-Corp certified brewery is treating selectedlucky pub-goers to a unique experience - with a pint poured from the world’s first “living”beer fount. HEINEKEN is supporting Toast in their mission, and as part of this commitment, they arecurrently trialling Toast beer at selected locations within their pub business, Star Pubs.Toast’s Rise Up Lager will be available on draught in select pubs from May. Toast is a craft brewery that uses surplus bakery bread to brew its beers, with all profitsgoing to environmental charities. Toast has been working with HEINEKEN since 2022 as astrategic investor, focussing on research and development, as part of HEINEKEN’s net zeroambitions. Lawson Mountstevens, Managing Director, Star Pubs says, “We are thrilled to partnerwith Toast, an innovative and exciting brand, to trial the 'living fount'. It is an eye-catchinginitiative that will get beer drinkers talking over their pint, and brings the topic ofsustainability literally to the bar. ” Rob Wilson, Co-founder of Toast says: “It symbolises our commitment to a greener,brighter future and is part of a campaign, "Nature's Taking Over" - merging the joy ofbeer-drinking with the call to environmental stewardship. We’re thrilled to announce thislong-awaited launch for Toast. Collaboration has always been key to our strategy forachieving change, and we’re excited to be able to scale our work with this launch into StarPubs.” About Toast Brewing Toast is a craft brewery that uses surplus bakery bread to brew itsbeers, with all profits going to environmental charities. Food production is the biggestcontributor to climate change and biodiversity loss but one third of all food is wasted.They’re here to change that. Toast is a social enterprise and a Certified B Corp.Toastbrewing.com | #RaiseAToast with @toastale on Twitter | @toast.brewing on Instagram |Facebook | LinkedIn

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Thousands of social enterprises may not survive the winter amid rising energy and operating costs and concerns over accessing contracts and funding, according to the findings of Social Enterprise UK’s latest Social Enterprise Barometer Report. Across the 222 respondents, the report highlighted signs of strain over the last quarter, with cashflow and reserves positions worsened, turnover and growth expectations down, and a decline in staff numbers. 3% of respondents said they expected to close in the next few months, which if applied to the 131,000 social enterprises the government estimates there to be in the UK, would mean around 4,000 social enterprises could be at risk of closure this winter[1] Many social enterprises are uncertain about their growth expectations, with nearly a third (30%) saying that growth is dependent on pending funding applications, income or contracts. In response to the cost-of-living crisis, nearly two-thirds of respondents (61%) said they are seeking new grant funding, half are reducing spend on non-essential inputs and services, more than a third (36%) said they have had to increase prices, and a third (30%) are reducing their profit margin. The main concerns identified by social enterprises within the next three-six months are accessing funding and finance (57%), costs related to staff (40%) and energy prices (35%). Over a third of respondents (35%) are concerned about reduced demand for their products/services and just over a quarter are concerned about capacity to meet increased demand (27%). Respondents were also asked what forms of support would help in the current economic climate. Among the top suggestions, a third of respondents said they would like support with cashflow and cuts to national insurance contributions, a quarter of respondents wanted better terms and conditions on public sector contracts, and around a fifth of respondents wanted support with energy bill payments and cuts in business rates. Peter Holbrook, Chief Executive of SEUK, said: “It’s clear from this report that the combined crises surrounding energy, inflation and recession have many social enterprises concerned for their future. “Our past research has shown that social enterprises prove more resilient to economic challenges than other businesses, so the degree of strain social enterprises are experiencing demonstrates the scale of the difficulties they are facing. “Most social enterprises work with people directly affected by the rising cost of living and they themselves need government support to brace the barrage of economic and financial instability. “Social Enterprise UK will closely monitor Government support announcements as it must enable social enterprises as they tackle the issues facing our communities and our planet. It is a matter of urgency.” The Social Enterprise Barometer report can be accessed through SEUK’s new Social Enterprise Knowledge Centre. Launched on 9th November, the Social Enterprise Knowledge Centre seeks to be the UK’s most comprehensive source of evidence on social enterprise. [1] Based on the new government estimate of 131,000 social enterprises in the UK: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1101560/Social_Enterprise_Market_Trends_2019_-_Middlesex_University.pdf

Social Enterprise UK is working in partnership with the University of Westminster on a programme of work focused on social enterprises and gender empowerment. Many social enterprises are working to tackle gender inequality – creating jobs, opening up opportunities and tackling entrenched social attitudes. This programme aims to work with social enterprises to help them embed gender empowerment into their work and day-to-day operations. Since November 2021 an expert team of academics from the university have been running a series of practical workshops with participating social enterprises to help them develop strategies to empower the women they employ or support. Early workshops took place online but have now moved to in person events, the latest of which looked at how the Theory of Change and Social Relations Approach can be used to develop gender empowerment strategies. Academics taking part in the programme are Dr Lilian Miles, Dr Maria Granados, Dr Vincent Rich and Dr Anastasia Alexeeva Why should I get involved and who can take part? The workshops are open to any Social Enterprise UK member interested in doing their part to create a gender equal world. Participating social enterprises do not need to have a primary social purpose of tackling gender inequality. The programme is a great way to provide your social enterprise with the organisational tools necessary to put in place systems which empower the women you work with and support, taking academic theory and putting it into practice. Workshops so have have looked in depth at areas such as creating a theory of change, design thinking and impact measurement. If you’re interested in taking part, please contact our membership team at membership@socialenterprise.org.uk Gender Empowerment Guide for Social Enterprises in the UK As part of this series of work the University of Westminster produced a Gender Empowerment Guide for use by social enterprises to empower the women they employ. Co-produced with social enterprises, the guide showcases best practice, potential challenges and how to address them, and provides clear indicators to measure the effectiveness and impact of gender empowerment practices. Click here to read the guide 

GLL case study is on its way...

Launched at the Social Value Leaders’ Summit on 18 May 2022, which brought together key stakeholders to explore the future of social value, this important report sets out a new vision for social value and explores how social value can be a tool to shape markets and organisational behaviour. As the UK Government looks to take forward its ‘levelling-up’ plans, the report identifies the benefits of creating an economy with social value at its heart and using existing public sector spending to reduce inequalities and transition to a green economy. The report also calls on the UK’s largest businesses to adopt a social value approach to working with the public sector. This new vision for social value focuses on how best to use procurement to drive improvement and greater sustainability in businesses and markets in the UK; transform public services and accelerate the drive to Net Zero. The report is authored by Professor Chris White – former Member of Parliament and author of the Social Value Act  Download the full report Download the summary We’ve also put together this two-pager which outlines the Social Value 2032 partnerships’ collective vision for the Social Value Economy.